The Director of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, Sazan Ibrahimi, told rtv21 that the Kosovo government should establish the fourth grant so that Kosovo municipalities benefit from an equal distribution of the budget. Ibrahimi described the budget allocations for capital investments in municipalities as a phenomenon that is being repeated year after year and, as he said, only the fourth grant is the solution to this issue. Ibrahimi's statement followed an analysis by the GAP institute where he emphasized that the distribution of capital investments from the central level is unequal, favoring municipalities led by the LVV.
"This is a phenomenon that will be stopped if the fourth grant is established. There have been political implications, the absolute majority of mayors have raised this concern that in some cases there have also been political criteria in the budget allocations by line ministries. It is very important to emphasize that these budget allocations are being made by line ministries and not by the government as such. ", said Ibrahimi.
Ibrahimi said that the biggest concern of Kosovo's mayors is that line ministries are making investments in certain municipalities even though the legal competence for these investments lies with the municipalities.
"With the legislation in force, municipal grants are guaranteed, but the biggest trick is being done by line ministries, where if there were a fourth grant, line ministries would not be able to invest equally at the local level where municipalities have the competences and then the funds would be distributed equally," he said.
"Based on the analysis of the GAP Institute, it appears that the differences will occur this year, but we hope that if the law on local finances is amended, this phenomenon will be stopped and all municipalities in Kosovo will be treated equally by line ministries in the future. Imagine, the Ministry of Infrastructure invests in local roads while the legal competence for investments lies with the municipality. That is, this has been our main argument as to why the ministry from the central level should invest in local roads when the competence lies with the municipality? So we think that the ministries that invest directly in municipalities should do so equally and we think that the fourth grant would avoid this phenomenon," added Ibrahim.
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